Book 1: Hydraulics
by Cupcake Vigilante
Summary: In a world where technology is prevalent and engineers are praised as powerful soldiers, war has broken out. Only the avatar, the master of machines, can save the planet. What will the world do, though, when they find out the avatar is only a child? AU


Hello! Welcome to my story! This will be based on the avatar time-line, replacing bending with modern technology. Of course, I'll add plot twists and changes so it's exciting and not a direct copyright of the actual series. I hope you like it!

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><p><em>Water, Earth, Fire, Air<em>

_Long ago the four nations lived together in harmony_

_Each nation mastered in a branch of technology that focused on their element_

_There are special people called engineers who were born with a knowledge for their elemental technology_

_Everyone lived in peace until the Firenation attacked_

_Only the avatar, a being who was born with a supreme knowledge for all of the technology types could build a machine strong enough to stop them_

_But, a hundred years ago, he vanished, leaving the world in war_

_Currently, I live in the Southern Watertribe, a series of islands near the bottom of the earth_

_The men of my island have gone to fight in the war, leaving my brother and I to take care of the women and children who are left_

_Most of the world has given up hope, but I still believe that the avatar is out there_

_I believe that he can save the world_

Trudging through the rocking waters, a small, creaky boat carried two passengers, a couple of teenagers trying to find fish for dinner. The eldest, a dark-haired boy around fifteen, was throwing a wooden fishing rod into the ocean, swirling it around in hopes that a fish would take the bait. His younger sister, an engineer of water, was wielding an electronic net that inconspicuously dipped into the ocean, grabbing up fish as the boat drug along.

"I got one!" she shouted, trying to scoop up the fish.

"What? Let me see!" said the boy, pushing her aside.

"Hey, don't touch my net! It's a complicated piece of hydraulic engineering that-"

"I don't care about your water magic, I just care about dinner!"

"Ugh, you're such a boy! It's not magic, it's engineering, and it's an-"

"Ancient art form, got it," he said, interrupting her for a second time. He tried to twist the net around to scoop the fish on to the boat, but managed to hit the machine on a passing rock, snapping part of the contraption into the ocean. The fish who was once tangled in the strings of the net swam away, and his sister looked like she'd been slapped in the face.

"Sokka, you _jerk_!" she screamed, punching him on the arm as hard as she could. "I told you not to touch it! There goes our only chance of dinner, because everyone knows you couldn't catch a fish if your life depended on it. I spent weeks working on that, because I don't have anyone to teach me this stuff. I'm the only engineer in the entire southern water tribe; you could at least act like the things I make aren't complete garbage."

"Uh, Katara-"

"No, I've had it with you. I do everything for our tribe! I cook, I clean, I wash your clothes, I build shelters, and you don't do anything about it. You run around playing warrior and preparing for an invasion that will probably never happen, because we have people actually fighting to protect us right now."

Sokka was afraid she would continue on, but suddenly the boat crashed, sending them flying through the air. Katara crashing into the control panel, breaking the steering wheel, and Sokka almost flipped off the boat entirely. The broken ship began to spin and proceeded further down the river, hitting rock after rock as the engine and controls were being ripped from the interior of the ship. The siblings clung on to the remaining parts for dear life, until they hit one final bump that sent them off the boat and on to a nearby rock.

"Now look what you've done!"

"What I've done?" said Katara, throwing her hands into the air. "_I'm_ not the one who was suppose to be steering."

"You distracted me!"

"If you weren't breaking my stuff, we wouldn't have crashed and we would have gotten dinner. Now we're going to go explain to Gran Gran that this is all your fault!"

Sokka was about to say something when he spotted a large, blue object floating behind Katara. He tilted his head to the side, and Katara looked behind her to see what he was staring at. She ran over to the edge of the rock, trying to reach out to the floating ball.

"Katara, don't touch that," he said, pulling her backwards. "You don't know what that could be."

"I can take care of myself, Sokka," she said, shoving his hand off her shoulder. "What if there's something inside it?"

"What do you think is going to be inside it? It's a random ball floating in the middle of the ocean! It's probably some more of that engineering magic. That stuff is going to destroy the water tribe and-"

"Sokka, just shut up," she said, trying to grab the structure. "I think I see something on the top. It looks like a button. Hand me your knife."

"You're going to try to open it?" he said, incredulously, but handed over the knife anyway. She reached as far as her arms would let her, trying to bump the button with the edge of the blade. Finally, she managed to glaze over it, and the ball began to open. "Can you see what's inside it?"

"Almost," she said, leaning over to try and peer into the ball as it began to open more. "It looks like a person."

"A person?" said Sokka, scratching his chin in a pondering way. "It must be a zombie!"

"It's not a zombie, Sokka," she scolded. "It looks like a boy."

Katara pulled the half circle closer, until the edge was touching the edge of the rock. She climbed over the ledge and into the sphere, sliding into it. It was a lot bigger than it looked on the outside; it managed to fit both the boy and a ship comfortably.

"Katara, what are you doing?" screamed Sokka. "You're going to drown!"

"It's not going to go underwater," she said, kneeling beside the boy. His eyes began to flutter open, so she propped his head up. He stirred for a moment before his eyes looked into hers, dazed and confused.

"Are you alright?"

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><p>Okay, there's the first chapter! Harsh critiquing is always welcomed. Of course, I won't object to nice reviews either :). Thanks for reading, and I'll try to have the next chapter out soon!<p> 


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